NN 306.874 SAR
Brierley, S., & Buttrose, L. (2013). A long way home. Melbourne, Victoria: Viking.

One eveninhttps://accessit.mlc.wa.edu.au/?serviceId=ExternalEvent&brSn=58027&brKey=93440291g, five-year-old Saroo left his poor village home in India to watch his older brother work at the next town’s train station. His life was about to be utterly transformed. Lost and alone on an unfamiliar train, he found himself taken across the country and deposited in a strange city, unable to explain who he was or where he was from. He’d arrived in Calcutta. After weeks of defying the odds on the city’s notoriously dangerous streets, Saroo was taken in by a government agency and, after failed attempts to find his family, was miraculously adopted by an Australian couple, the Brierleys, and taken to start a new life in Hobart. As an adult, though, he never forgot his Indian roots and kept trying to work out where he came from.

Text type: Autobiography
Subject: Adoption, Families

A young reader’s edition is available.

NN 792.802 DEP
DePrince, M., & DePrince, E. (2014). Hope in a ballet shoe : a true story. London, England: Faber & Faber.

From war orphan in Sierra Leone to a soloist with the Dutch National Ballet, Michaela DePrince has beaten extraordinary odds to succeed in the cut-throat world of ballet. As a young orphan she witnesses atrocities that no child ever should, but she finds hope in a magazine photo of a ballerina that the wind blows through the orphanage gates. Adopted by an American couple, she is able to take dance lessons and pursue her dream of becoming a dancer. A heart-breaking, inspiring autobiography by a teenager who shows us that, beyond everything, there is always hope for a better future.

Text type: Autobiography
Subject: Ballet, Adoption, Orphans

NN 796.42 FRE
Freeman, C. (2007). Born to run : my story. Camberwell, Vic: Penguin

Hi guys, Ever since I was little I only had one dream – to win a gold medal at the Olympics.

When I was twenty-seven years old, my dream came true. I’ll never forget that night at the Sydney 2000 Games – as I crossed the finish line, it was as if the whole of Australia was cheering for me.

Sometimes I still wonder how it happened. When I was growing up, I felt no different to anyone else. I loved having fun with my brothers, sleeping over at nanna’s and going horse riding with my dad. But I especially loved to run. With the help of my family, coaches and teachers, I became the best female 400-metre runner in the world.

I hope you enjoy my story, and that it inspires you to chase after your dreams too! (Blurb).

Text type: Autobiography
Subject: Sportspeople, Track Athletics, Olympics, Aboriginal peoples

NN 621.31 KAM
Kamkwamba, W., & Mealer, B. (2015). The boy who harnessed the wind. (Young readers edition). New York, New York: Puffin Books.

The story of how an enterprising teenager in Malawi built a windmill from scraps he found around his village and brought electricity, and a future, to his family, after his Malawi village was hit by a drought and everyone’s crops began to fail.

Text type: Autobiography
Subject: Living standards, Power supply, Water supply, Wind power, Rural areas

Audio also available

NN 910.41092 WAT
Watson, J. (2010). True spirit : the Aussie girl who took on the world. New York, New York: Atria Books.

This is Jessica Watson’s own account of becoming, at just sixteen, the youngest person to ever sail solo, unassisted and non-stop around the globe in 2010.

After two hundred and ten harrowing days at sea in a 10 meter boat, she shares her preparation, how her parents came to terms with her decision, and a journey that included sleep deprivation, technical problems, gale-force winds, mountainous seas, and hazardous icebergs. She will also share how she managed to maintain composure against solitude that most of us can only imagine dealing with alone on a vast sea, with no land in sight and no help close at hand.  (Google Books).

Text type: Autobiography
Subject: Adventures & adventurers, Voyagers and traveling, Sailing

NN 940.426 MAR
Hill, A. (2001). Soldier boy : the true story of Jim Martin the youngest Anzac. Ringwood, Vic: Penguin.

On 28 June 1915, young James Martin sailed from Melbourne aboard the troopship Berrima – bound, ultimately, for Gallipoli. He was just fourteen years old. “Soldier Boy” is Jim’s extraordinary true story, the story of a young and enthusiastic school boy who became Australia’s youngest known Anzac. Four months after leaving his home country he would be numbered among the dead, just one of so many soldier boys who travelled halfway around the world for the chance of adventure.

This is, however, just as much the story of Jim’s mother, Amelia Martin, who had to let him go, of his family who lost a son, a brother, an uncle, a friend. It is about Amelia’s boy who, like so many others, just wanted to be in on the action.

Text type: Biography
Subject: World War I, Soldiers, Gallipoli

Audio also available

NN 966.404 KAM
Kamara, M., & McClelland, S. (2010). Bite of the mango. London, England: Bloomsbury Publishing.

When Mariatu set out for a neighbourhood village in Sierra Leone, she was kidnapped and tortured, and both of her hands cut off. She turned to begging to survive. In this heart-rending memoir Mariatu shares with readers the details of the brutal attack and the courage, astonishing resilience and hope which led to her recovery. Today she is a UNICEF Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict.

Text type: Autobiography
Subject: War victims

NN 325 KAZ
Kazerooni, A. (2012). On two feet and wings : based on one boy’s amazing true story of survival. Sydney, N.S.W: Allen & Unwin.

This amazing true story of a boy fleeing Tehran on his own during the Iran-Iraq War provides a powerful child’s-eye view of political tumult, separation, survival, dreams and triumphs in a moving memoir that chronicles extraordinary times in an ordinary boy’s life.

Close to his tenth birthday, Abbas has to leave his parents and friends to escape Tehran. The Iran-Iraq War is at its bloodiest. The ayatollahs, the rulers of Iran, have reduced the age of recruitment into the army. If Abbas doesn’t leave soon, he will have to go to war.

In the strange and often frightening city of Istanbul, Abbas has to grow up fast. Living alone for twelve weeks in a rundown hotel, he has to learn to live by his wits, and watch his back. Will he ever get his dream visa to England?

Text type: Autobiography
Subject: Iranian refugees, Iran-Iraq War

NN 325 PAR
Park, Y., & Vollers, M. (2016). In order to live : a North Korean girl’s journey to freedom. London, England: Penguin Books.

‘I am most grateful for two things: that I was born in North Korea, and that I escaped from North Korea.’ Yeonmi Park was not dreaming of freedom when she escaped from North Korea. She didn’t even know what it meant to be free. All she knew was that she was running for her life, that if she and her family stayed behind they would die — from starvation, or disease, or even execution. This book is the story of Park’s struggle to survive in the darkest, most repressive country on earth; her harrowing escape through China’s underworld of smugglers and human traffickers; and then her escape from China across the Gobi desert to Mongolia, with only the stars to guide her way, and from there to South Korea and at last to freedom; and finally her emergence as a leading human rights activist — all before her 21st birthday.

Text type: Autobiography
Subject: North Korea, Refugees, Escapes

NN 951.05 JIA
Jiang, J. (1998). Red scarf girl: a memoir of the cultural revolution. New York, New York: HarperTrophy.

It’s 1966, and twelve-year-old Ji-li Jiang has everything a girl could want: brains, popularity, and a bright future in Communist China. But it’s also the year that China’s leader, Mao Ze-dong, launches the Cultural Revolution–and Ji-li’s world begins to fall apart. Over the next few years, people who were once her friends and neighbours turn on her and her family, forcing them to live in constant terror of arrest. And when Ji-li’s father is finally imprisoned, she is forced to face the most dreadful decision of her young life: denounce him and break with her family, or refuse to testify against him and sacrifice her future in her beloved Communist Party.

Text type: Memoir/ Personal Narrative
Subject: China, History

eBook also available via BorrowBox

NN 951.9305 LEE
Lee, S., & McClelland, S. (2016). Every falling star : the true story of how I survived and escaped North Korea. London, England: Amulet Books.

Every Falling Star is the memoir of Sungju Lee, a North Korean boy who was forced at the age of twelve to live on the streets and fend for himself. Sungju tells what it was like to be separated from his parents; to be alone; to have to create a new family with his gang, his ‘brothers’; to be hungry every day; and to fear arrest, imprisonment, and even execution. In this compelling true story, Lee, with Susan McClelland, grimly reveals that many of the freedoms taken for granted in the West do not exist in other lands … and that hope is often all there is to cling to.

Text type: Autobiography
Subject: North Korea, Homelessness, Survival

eBook also available via BorrowBox

NN 305.906914 MUS
Mustafa, N., & Lamb, C. (2016). Nujeen : one girl’s incredible journey from war-torn Syria in a wheelchair. London, England: William Collins.

The story of Nujeen, a 17-year-old Syrian girl now living in Germany. The trip to get there from her homeland of Syria was extraordinary. Born with cerebral palsy and confined to a wheelchair, leaving Syria with her sister was no easy option, but her courage, optimism and determination brought her through the harrowing journey. Nujeen’s story personalises the critical refugee crisis.

Text type: Autobiography
Subject: Cerabral palsy, Disabilities, Syria, Refugees

NN 994.104 PIL
Pilkington, D. (2002). Follow the rabbit-proof fence. St Lucia, Qld: University of Queensland Press.

This is the true account of the author’s mother Molly, made legend by the film ‘Rabbit-Proof Fence’.

In 1931 Molly led her two sisters on an extraordinary 1,600 kilometre walk across remote Western Australia. Aged 8, 11 and 14, they escaped the confinement of a government institution for Aboriginal children removed from their families. Barefoot, without provisions or maps, tracked by Native Police and search planes, the girls followed the rabbit-proof fence, knowing it would lead them home.

Text type: Biographical account
Subject: Aboriginal children, Stolen generations

eAudio book also available via Borrowbox

NN 968.06 MAN
Keller, B., & New York Times (2008). Tree shaker : the story of Nelson Mandela. London, England: Kingfisher

This biography looks at the life of Nelson Mandela and the events that led Mandela from his tribal homeland to the centre of the struggle for racial equality in South Africa. From early acts of protest to
the leadership of an apartheid-free nation, this is an honest portrayal of a
modern political and social icon and places his awe-inspiring accomplishments in historical context for a new generation to admire.

Text type: Biographical
Subject: South Africa, Apartheid, Racial discrimination

NN 323.1196073 PAR
Parks, R., & Haskins, J. (1999). Rosa Parks : my story. New York, New York: Penguin.

The black woman whose acts of civil disobedience led to the 1956 Supreme Court order to desegregate buses in Montgomery, Alabama, explains what she did and why.

Text type: Autobiography
Subject: African Americans, Segregation, Racial discrimination

NN 371.82209549 YOU
Yousafzai, M., & McCormick, P. (2014). Malala : the girl who stood up for education and changed the world. London, England: Indigo.

On Tuesday, 9 October, 2012, a fifteen-year-old Pakistani girl was shot in the face at point-blank range because she had the temerity to stand up to the Taliban. That girl, Malala Yousafzai, survived the attack and the shocking story made headlines around the world. Overnight, Malala became a global symbol of peaceful protest and education for all.

Text type: Autobiography
Subject: Girls education, Civil rights, Women in Pakistan